Computers have played an increasingly important role in all manners of business and personal activities. Along with the increased usage of personal computing has come various networks technologies used to connect the computers together. Computer networks have become as important as the computers themselves, providing users worldwide connectivity via infrastructures such as the Internet.
Networks can range in scale from just a few computers on a local area network (LAN) to worldwide network infrastructures such as a Global Area Network (GAN) (e.g., the Internet). Generally, the larger a network becomes, the more complex and difficult it is to manage. Managing networks includes checking current status of network devices and links, monitoring network performance to discover bottlenecks and other performance problems, configuring network devices to account for new equipment and topologies, etc.
If all network hardware and software is supplied by the same vendor, then a proprietary network management system may be used to maintain the network. A proprietary system can take full advantage of the hardware and software features provided by the vendor. However, it is rarely efficient for an enterprise to buy all hardware from the same vendor. As market conditions and technologies change, it is more cost effective to buy from different vendors to optimize performance and value. Also, having a diversity of hardware and software typically makes the network more robust. Therefore, standards have been developed to allow a wide diversity of network devices to be managed.
One of these standards is the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP is an application layer protocol that facilitates the exchange of management information between network devices. SNMP enables network administrators to manage network performance, find and solve network problems, and plan for network growth. A network management tool may utilize an SNMP interface for easy configuration and control of network devices. The network management tool may make configuration easier by utilizing, for example, a graphical user interface (GUI).
Although many devices may be accessed and configured using SNMP and related protocols, many manufacturers will still want to provide custom features that are not easily adaptable to an existing SNMP framework. It is desirable, therefore, to provide ready access to these custom features from a network management tool.